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The mindful designer does not use any real fur or leather in his collections… What's a day in the life of a sought-after fashion designer like? "Every day is pretty different. That's what's kinda hard about it, that you cannot plan. Obviously, you can plan if we have meetings and appointments, and things like that. You really can't plan who's gonna want a dress, who needs something custom… I could be asked, 'We need to send Beyoncé fifteen dresses and they all need to be custom-made.' It happened a couple of weeks ago. And you have to figure it out. But that's what makes it still fun. When I'm making a collection, I get to do whatever I want. I'm the boss. There are no rules here, except what I make. I like being the boss!" he says enthusiastically. Nights are spent sketching designs while watching TV (he likes Netflix's The Crown , Scandal, American Horror Story "'cause I love all my girls on that!"). The next day, he brings the sketches to his studio and gets to work. "I'll give them to the design team or we have a bunch of pattern makers we work with and I'll be like, 'Let's make this!' But fabric is a big part of it. I definitely pick and choose fabrications before we make anything 'cause I think they're really important in a collection." His fanciful sketches (available for purchase on his website) can come to fruition in as quick as a day, while others may take weeks. "Sometimes the simplest, stupidest dress is the hardest, which is always interesting to me." In addition to his clothing, Christian has bedding (sold in Bed Bath & Beyond) and vegan handbags (sold in Bloomingdales, Saks, and Lord & Taylor), "which is really an important thing I feel really proud of," says Christian about his vegan line. The mindful designer does not use any real fur or leather in his collections, which appealed to our favorite vegan and former cover girl Alicia Silverstone, who is a fan and good friend of Christian's. "Alicia's the best. I'm not vegan, but I'm definitely a little bit more cautious than maybe most, other fashion brands. She really tries to get me to be vegan… I made sure at my wedding that we had vegan and gluten-free options for people. Alicia sat with us at our head table. I was like, 'Oh God, she has to have a lot of food options or she'll be so annoyed.' But then I had steak, chicken, and lobster for everyone else. That was important, 'cause my mom is definitely not vegan," he says with a laugh. Over the years an impressive list of notable women have donned his label (standouts include Oprah, Michelle Obama, Gwyneth Paltrow —her dress became their top-selling dress that year), but there are still "a million" stars that Christian would love to dress, for no reason other than because he adores them. "That's usually how I pick," says the designer, who places actresses Cate Blanchett and Drew Barrymore at the top of his list. "But we've never sought after somebody like, 'I have to dress this person!' It has to be organic or it doesn't work... I always say actresses and musicians need us just as much as we need them. They need to look good and have a fashion moment just as much as we need to have that moment. We're designers that create from a flat piece of fabric and we create three-dimensional forms… We all support each other. It can drive me crazy if somebody wears something and they don't kind of promote it in their own way, like if actresses are on the red carpet and are like, 'I don't know what I'm wearing.' Well, you should know… because they're interested in what you're wearing. They're looking at your red dress. So it's an important thing for the people to think about, I think." ML For more on Christian, visit http://www. christiansiriano.com/ and keep up with him on Instagram: @CSiriano Twitter: @CSiriano, and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ christiansiriano/